Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently flagged off Vande Bharat Express from Una in Himachal Pradesh to New Delhi.

• This is the fourth Vande Bharat train to be introduced in the country.
• The introduction of the train will help boost tourism in the region and provide a comfortable and faster mode of travel.
• The coaches of this train are indigenously manufactured at the Chennai Rail coach factory.
• Vande Bharat Express has been tested at 180 kmph and can run upto maximum speed of 160 kmph on passenger service.
• All Coaches are equipped with automatic doors; GPS based audio-visual passenger information system, onboard hotspot, wi-fi for entertainment purposes, and very comfortable seating.

Experts call for protection of sloth bear on first World Sloth Bear Day

• It aims to spread awareness about protection and conservation of sloth bears.
• A proposal for observing the World Sloth Bear Day was mooted by Wildlife SOS India, an organisation involved in sloth bear conservation and protection for over two decades and the IUCN-Species Survival Commission sloth bear expert team accepted the proposal and declared the day to be celebrated worldwide.

Sloth bears ( Melursus ursinus):

• Sloth bears are endemic to the Indian sub-continent with small populations in Nepal and Srilanka and 90% of the species population is found in India.
• They are classified as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List.
• They are identified by their very distinct long, shaggy dark brown or black fur, distinct white V-shaped chest patch and four-inch long ivory-coloured curved claws used for digging out termites and ants from rock-hard mounds. Listed under Schedule I of the (Wildlife Protection) Act of India, 1972 the species has the same level of protection as tigers, rhinos and elephants.
• They are found in all parts of the country except Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern States.

World Arthritis Day 2022 observed on 12th October

• The theme for World Arthritis Day 2022 is “It’s in your hands, take action”.
• It aims to raise awareness about arthritis, a condition that can affect one or more joints, causing pain, swelling, and inflammation.
• It was established in 1996 by Arthritis and Rheumatism International (ARI).
• There are different types of arthritis out of which the most common ones are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Inflation accelerates to 7.41% in September 2022, highest since April

• September’s retail inflation was the highest since April, when price rise quickened to an almost eight-year high of 7.79%.
• This is the ninth month in a row that inflation has exceeded the 6% upper tolerance threshold mandated for the RBI and would require it to send an explanation to the government on its inability to achieve the price stability target.
• Rural inflation picked up further steam, from 7.15% in August, to touch 7.56% in September, while urban consumers also experienced a resurgence in price rise at 7.27%, from 6.72% a month earlier.
• Inflation in cereals quickened to 11.5%, with rural India facing almost 12% price gains, up sharply from 9.6% in August and almost doubling from July’s 6.9% pace.
• Vegetables’ inflation almost virtually doubled over two months, from 10.9% in July to 18.1% in September, with urban consumers facing a sharper 20.1% rise.

Languages panel recommendations and a fresh ‘Hindi imposition’ row

• The Committee of Parliament on Official Language was set up in 1976 under Section 4 of The Official Languages Act, 1963.
• Section 4 of the Act says “there shall be constituted a Committee on Official language, on a resolution to that effect being moved in either House of Parliament with the previous sanction of the President and passed by both Houses”.
• Under the provisions of the 1963 Act, the panel submits its report to the President, who “shall [then] cause the report to be laid before each House of Parliament, and sent to all the State Governments”.
• The Committee is chaired by the Union Home Minister, and has, in accordance with the provisions of the 1963 Act, 30 members — 20 MPs from Lok Sabha and 10 MPs from Rajya Sabha.
• The mandate of the Committee is to review the progress made in the use of Hindi for official purposes, and to make recommendations to increase the use of Hindi in official communications.
• The first Report of the Committee was submitted in 1987.

Interpol rejects Delhi Red Corner request for Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun

• Mandate: It is an international organization facilitating international police cooperation against cross-border terrorism, trafficking, and other crime.
• Governance: All decisions regarding the activities of INTERPOL are made by the General Assembly which is it’s supreme governing body which meets annually.
• Status: It is ‘NOT’ a unit or part of united nation system. It is an independent international organization.
• National Central Bureau (NCB):
  • It has a National Central Bureau (NCB) in each member country, which is the central point of contact for both the general secretariat and the other NCBs around the world.
  • Each NCB is run by police officials of that country, and usually sits in the government ministry responsible for policing. (Union Home Ministry in India.)
  • Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) represents Interpol in India as the country''s national central bureau.
• HQ: Lyon in France.
• Founded in: 1923.

Types of Notices:

• It issues 8 type of notices (7 of which are colour-coded) which are in the form of alert/requests allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.
• Red Notice
  • To seek the location and arrest of a person wanted by a judicial jurisdiction or an international tribunal with a view to his/her extradition.
  • It is the "closest instrument to an international arrest warrant”.
• Blue Notice
  • To locate, identify or obtain information on a person of interest in a criminal investigation.
• Green Notice
  • To warn about a person''s criminal activities if that person is considered to be a possible threat to public safety.
• Yellow Notice
  • To locate a missing person or to identify a person unable to identify himself/herself.
• Black Notice
  • To seek information on unidentified bodies.
• Orange Notice
  • To warn of an event, a person, an object or a process representing an imminent threat and danger to persons or property.
• Purple Notice
  • To provide information on modus operandi, procedures, objects, devices or hiding places used by criminals.
• Interpol-UNSC Special Notice
  • To inform Interpol''s members that an individual or an entity is subject to UN sanctions.

Rajnath Singh To Launch Website On October 14 Enabling Citizens To Contribute To Welfare Fund For Martyrs'' Families

• It is a Tri service fund, utilised for grant of immediate financial assistance of ex-gratia, to the Next of Kin and dependents of Battle Casualties.
• It has been set up under Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (ESW), Ministry of Defence.
• The fund has been created under the Charitable Endowments Act, 1890.
• Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan to be the ‘Goodwill Ambassador’.

Over 15 crore activities conducted under various themes across the country during Poshan Maah 2022

• Through the Suposhit Bharat initiative, the government intend to conceptualize, develop, pilot and scale up food-based nutrition interventions through food services at institutional food services’ level, and street foods, school & college canteens.
• This will therapeutically address malnutrition and non-communicable diseases in the general population.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan is a multi-ministerial convergence mission with the vision to ensure attainment of malnutrition free India.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan provides a platform to converge the activities of various stakeholders towards attaining the goal of ‘Suposhit Bharat’.

Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 gets Cabinet approval

• It seeks to amend the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002.
• The Bill will incorporate the provisions of the 97th Constitutional Amendment.
• The amendments have been introduced to improve governance, reform the electoral process, strengthen monitoring mechanisms and enhance transparency and accountability.
• The Bill also seeks to improve the composition of board and ensure financial discipline, besides enabling the raising of funds in the multi-state cooperative societies.
• It has included provisions relating to representation of women and Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe members on the board of multi-state cooperative societies.
• It has provisions for setting up of Cooperative Election Authority, Cooperative Information Officer and Cooperative Ombudsman.
• There will also be a provision for issuing non-voting shares in multi-state co-operative societies to help them raise funds.

Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002

• The Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002 was enacted with a view to facilitating democratic functioning and autonomous working of multi-state co-operative societies in line with the established co-operative principles.
• India has more than 1,500 multi-State co-operative societies serving as an important tool to promote economic and social betterment of their members based on the principles of self-help and mutual aid.

Amit Shah unveils 15ft high statue of Jayaprakash Narayan in Bihar''s Sitab Diara

• He was born on October 11, 1902, in Bihar’s Sitab Diara.
• He quit college to join the non-cooperation movement, before going to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx.
• He returned to India in 1929 and joined the freedom struggle and the Indian National Congress, upon the invitation of Jawaharlal Nehru and drawn by a speech by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
• He is one of the founding members of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP).
• He is credited for galvanising popular opinion against Indira Gandhi government, through his call for Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution). It led to the formation of the first non-Congress government (Janata Party government, 1977) in the country.
• In 1999, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, in recognition of his social service.
• Other awards include the Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1965.